federal deficit

“Too often in this country we learn things the hard way – whether it’s putting your nest egg in overvalued stocks, borrowing more than your house is worth, or amassing a mountain of student debt to pay for a degree with no real job prospects,” said Peter Thiel, billionaire co-founder of PayPal. “With its unsustainable deficits, government spending is heading down the same path. Men and women who want freedom and growth should take action. A good place to start is voting for Ron Paul.”
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President Obama will send Congress his plan for reducing the deficit over the next decade. It will feature a proposed minimum tax rate for millionaires requiring them to pay the same percentage as middle-income taxpayers. As with the administration’s other tax increase initiatives, it has no prospect for approval by House Republicans, as signaled by Speaker John Boehner last week.
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Chron.com’s Big Jolly blogger has this report from a town hall hosted by Houston Republican Rep. John Culberson: “It’s that time again. Town Hall time. Unlike the town halls of 2009 when voters were protesting against Obamneycare, this time voters are mad at Republicans for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling without hard cuts to the current budget.”
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Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison today announced her support for a $3.4 trillion deficit reduction plan put together by the bipartisan “Gang of Six” senators.The plan, which would whittle away at the deficit over 10 years, is the largest package of deficit reduction with bipartisan report and concessions by both sides.

Hutchison’s fellow Texan Sen. John Cornyn, R-San Antonio, said simply in an emailed statement that he is carefully reviewing all proposals.

* Watch what they do, not just what they say.
* It’s always darkest before the dawn.
* When the attacks sound the most partisan, there’s usually some compromisin’ going on behind closed doors.
* The conventional wisdom is almost always wrong.

I was reminded of these rules when listening over the past few days to the words of two skilled partisan practitioners, President Obama and Texas Sen. John Cornyn.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn this morning laid out a political blueprint for comprehensive tax reform, declaring that he’d close some corporate “tax expenditures” as part of a “revenue neutral” deal that lowered overall tax rates.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, the San Antonio Republican said there is bipartisan support for “revenue neutral” tax reform that eliminated “tax expenditures” while lowering the rates paid by the vast majority of businesses.

“Our tax code is riddled with a lot of tax expenditures that don’t make sense,” said Cornyn, citing federal subsidies to the ethanol industry as one example of an unjustified corporate tax break.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, tried but failed to include language protecting funding for Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security as part of a House Judiciary Committee Balanced Budget Amendment.

The Amendment, which passed the committee with a 20-12 party-line vote this week, would require require a balance in the projected revenues and expenditures of the federal government but is unlikely to win the two-thirds vote needed to pass the Republican House.

“I am disappointed,” Jackson Lee said. “We must get our fiscal house in order… but we must also protect the vulnerable.”

Both parties are focused on blame setting for the deficit and hoped-for credit taking for a deal, conveying political messages that appeal to partisans but have little attraction for centrists who look for non-partisan solutions to address long-term employment and fiscal problems. The centrists are open to persuasion, but neither party appears to be reaching out to them for now.